Re: Language and "mysticism," whatever that is.

Sally Caves wrote:
>
> Vyko, Conlangers!  I've taken a long long holiday (which
> essentially amounts to doing my dayjob at the university).
> I hope you haven't forgotten Teonaht!
>
> I'm speaking, again, at a conference in a few days, and I
> wanted to ask you a couple of questions--sort of along the
> lines of my old "Lunatic Survey."
>
> 1)  How many of you old- and new-comers started inventing a language
> in isolation from the list?
>
>         1a)  If so, how old were you?
19 or 20.

>         1b)  Was it a project with friends or a solitary project?
It was a solitary project.

>         1b)  Did your invented language have some kind of private purpose?
>                 esoteric?  erotic? religious or mystical?
Yes, my first language was primarily for religious/magical
work and secondarily as a general-use language.

>
>                 Since the topic of my panel is "the language of mysticism,"
>                 I'm especially interested in this last.
>
> 2)  How many of you newcomers heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow! I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
>
> 3)  How many of you, when you were starting out on this on your own,
> did this kind of thing:  you have a list of words you want to invent
> new ones for, so you drew di-and polysyllabic words out of the air.
> This is
> what I did when I was new at this and a teenager.  Many of these still
> remain vocabulary words in Teonaht, but I've since then learned to build
> up through word roots.
I tended to invent a few words and then create more words
derived from those words, although not in a terribly
systematic fashion.


> 4)  If so, how important was it that the new word sound "exotic,"
> "beautiful," or
> "suggestive" in some personal way of the word you wanted it to stand
> for?
The first language I made, I wanted every word to be
beautiful and exotic. When I started making ea-luna, I
purposely ignored those aspects because I wanted something
as different as possible from what I had already done.


>
> 5)  How many of you invented words to express concepts that could not be
> expressed in your native language?
I do that a lot. In fact, I have a
previously-non-language-constructing friend that I have
introduced to this, and sometimes we exchange words that
cover ground not easily covered by English (native for both
of us).

>
> 6)  How many of you used it for prayer?  For secrecy?
I've done both.

>
> 7)  For how many of you was it an intellectual exercise?
>
> 8)  A language for a conculture?
I created the concultures for my languages afterward because
it seemed like a fun thing to do, and I didn't want them to
exist in isolation without even a fictional background.
Since then, constructing cultures has become a new hobby of
mine in its own right.

>
> 9)  How many of you newcomers (and I see a lot of names I don't
> recognize
> in the six months I've been away) heard of the list first and thought--
> Wow!  I think I'll try my hand at conlanging!
>
> 10)  What is your definition of a mystical language?  Would any of you
> characterize your conlang as such?
>
I am in a bit of a hurry (as usual) but there might be
different kinds of mystical language: those that are used
for purposes generally regarded as mystical in nature
(religion, magick, etc) and those that are constructed to be
tools to help gain insight into Mysteries or one's own inner
self. In fact, the act of constructing a language could be
something that opens up new ways of thinking and seeing,
helping a person see new meaning in the world through
creating new meaning in language. I know that my own
conlanging has made me more objectively aware of the way I
think and feel, and has given me the tools to talk about my
experience of the Divine in ways that are meaningful to me,
regardless of whether anyone else understands what I am
saying. Sometimes it is more useful to be able to
communicate with one's self than to communicate the same
thought to someone else.

(I know that might sound like nonsense to some people. I am
afraid I've not written this very clearly.)

--

Mia Soderquist
http://www.papasody.com
"Who is she that looketh forth as the morning,
 fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and
 terrible as an army with banners?" (Song 6:10)